當心“憤怒的小鳥”：英美利用手機程序蒐集情報
The NSA and its British counterpart are tapping popular smartphone apps such as Angry Birds to peek into the tremendous amounts of very personal data those bits of software collect -- including age, location, sex and even sexual preferences, according to new reports from the New York Times and The Guardian.
Citing confidential documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the reports detail efforts to supplement data collection from cell phone carriers and smartphones by tapping into “leaky” apps themselves.
“Some apps, the documents state, can share users' most sensitive information such as sexual orientation – and one app recorded in the material even sends specific sexual preferences such as whether or not the user may be a swinger,” the Guardian said.
That information can come from a user profile, which may contain martial status -- options included "single," "married," "divorced," "swinger" and more, the report said.
Both spy agencies showed a particular interest in Google Maps, which is accurate to within a few yards or better in some locations and would clearly pass along data about a phone owner's whereabouts.
“It effectively means that anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system,” reads a secret 2008 report by the NSA's sister spy agency, according to the New York Times.
More surprising is the wide range of apps that the agencies cull for data, including innocent-seeming apps such as Angry Birds. One document in particular from GCHQ listed what information can be extracted from which apps, citing Android apps but suggesting the same data was available from the iPhone platform.
Angry Birds maker Rovio said it had no knowledge of any NSA or GCHQ programs or mechanisms for tapping into its users’ data.
"Rovio doesn't have any previous knowledge of this matter, and have not been aware of such activity in 3rd party advertising networks," said Saara Bergstrom, Rovio's VP of marketing and communications. "Nor do we have any involvement with the organizations you mentioned [NSA and GCHQ]."
Mobile photo uploads appear to be a particularly rich source of information for the spy agencies as well. Metadata in the photos -- which is often ultimately stripped from pictures by social media sites like Facebook and Twitter -- is briefly available.
The NSA and GCHQ are able to tap into that metadat to collect a wealth of key data points about a person’s life, including age, gender, marital status (“Options include single, married, divorced, swinger and more,” The Guardian said), income, education level and more.
“NSA does not profile everyday Americans as it carries out its foreign intelligence mission,” the agency told the Times in response to questions about the program.
During a Monday press conference, White House press secretary Jay Carney stressed that same position.
"As the president said in his Jan. 17 speech, to the extent data is collected by the NSA, through whatever means, we are not interested in the communications of people who are not valid foreign intelligence targets and we are not after the information of ordinary Americans," he said.《憤怒的小鳥》堪稱史上最火的手機應用程序，但也成爲“泄露”用戶個人數據的源頭。綜合外國媒體1月27日報道，英美兩國情報機構通過“潛伏”於智能手機中流行的應用程序，獲取所需的用戶個人信息。
報道援引美國“監控門”事件揭祕者愛德華•斯諾登最新披露的機密文件稱，美國國家安全局（NSA）和英國政府通訊總部（GCHQ）利用“有漏洞”的手機應用程序，例如《憤怒的小鳥》、谷歌地圖、臉譜網（Facebook）、推特（Twitter）等，大量收集包括年齡、位置乃至性取向等用戶的個人信息。
“文件顯示，一些手機應用程序可以分享用戶最隱祕的信息，比如性取向。還有一款程序，甚至能發送用戶是不是亂搞男女關係的人等特殊內容。”英國《衛報》報道稱，這些信息來自用戶個人資料，其中通常包含婚姻狀況，選項包括“單身”、“已婚”、“離異”、“可換偶”等等。
其中，由於“谷歌地圖”能夠在一定範圍內準確顯示並傳輸用戶所處位置，英美兩國情報機構對這款手機應用程序興趣極高。美國《紐約時報》指出，“這實際上意味着，任何在智能手機上使用谷歌地圖的人其實都在支持英國政府通訊總部的情報蒐集系統”。
此外，手機上傳照片也爲情報機構蒐集信息提供了豐富的資源。英美兩國情報機構可通過挖掘照片元數據，瞭解用戶幾乎全部的私隱信息。
據悉，英國政府通訊總部內部還存有一份文件，其中清楚列明從哪些手機應用程序中可獲取哪些信息，並寫道不論智能手機搭載的是安卓還是iOS系統，獲取信息都是“可行的”。
《憤怒的小鳥》開發商芬蘭Rovio公司表示，他們對於情報機構利用該公司出品的遊戲蒐集用戶數據一事毫不知情。而美國白宮發言人卡尼27日迴應稱，國安局並不針對一般的美國民衆,“美國國安局收集情報的對象是有效的外國情報目標，而非一般美國民衆，我們不是在追蹤普通美國人的信息”。
